Developing Augmented Reality Applications for Android

Augmented Reality (AR) is currently a hot category on iPhone and Android devices. One can find numerous interactive AR applications on the App Store and Android Market. Following are some of the interesting AR applications available on the Android Market:

1. Wikitude World Browser

2. 3D Compass

3. Tweeps Around

 

So, what exactly is AR?

Wikipedia defines AR as a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated sensory input such as sound or graphics. Simply speaking, AR is the ability to overlay location data points on the live view of a mobile device’s camera.Thus, AR applications combine virtual data into the real world by utilizing the phone’s compass, camera, and GPS system.
You can get more information about AR here and here .
In this article, we will provide you some resources which will help you in developing your own AR applications for Android devices.

 

Android AR-Kit (Recommended)
An open source, Geographical based, Augmented Reality library.

 

Layar
The Layar Reality Browser shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of the real world as seen through the camera of your mobile phone.You can use the Layar Platform to create your own AR Applications.

 

Mixare
mixare (mix Augmented Reality Engine) is a free open source augmented reality browser. It works as a completely autonomous application and is available as well for the development of own implementations.

 

Qualcomm Augmented Reality Platform
The Qualcomm Augmented Reality Platform provides developers the ability to create high-performance Android applications with C++ APIs.

 

Tutorial
Chris Haseman has also put together a nice tutorial for developing AR applications using the Android AR-Kit. Experienced Android Developers will find this tutorial very helpful.

We hope that you’ll find these resources useful. Let us know about your thoughts on AR application development in the comments section.

 

来源：http://www.androidkit.com/developing-augmented-reality-applications-for-android